Part 16 (1/2)
”He won't,” a.s.serted Rob. ”I am sure he is made of cast iron.”
Throughout dinner Rob remained in high spirits. He kept eyeing Beth in a way that disconcerted her, and then suddenly he would smile with the expression of one who knows something funny, but intends to keep it a secret.
Presently Silvia left us and went upstairs to give Diogenes a bath before she put him to bed.
”You've had two days' freedom from the last of the Polydores,” I called after her. ”Doesn't it seem delightful?”
”Lucien,” she answered slowly, ”I've really missed the care of him. I was lonesome for him all day.”
”He isn't such a bad little kid when he is out from Polydore environment,” I admitted, regretting that he had been restored to it.
”Now tell us all about your day with the boys,” Beth asked Rob, when we were left alone. ”It really does seem too bad to keep a secret from Silvia, and yet it is a case of where ignorance is bliss--”
”It would be folly to be otherwise,” finished Rob. ”Well, Diogenes and I left here with a boat load of supplies in the way of provender and things for the boys. I had to tie Diogenes in the boat, of course, so he would not try some aquatic feat. He objected and yelled like a fiend all the way. I was glad there was no one at the hotel to come out and arrest me for cruelty to children. Of course before we landed, his cries were heard by his brothers and they were all at the water's edge. They made mulepacks of themselves and transferred the commissary supplies. The ice cream and bats and b.a.l.l.s which I found at the store made quite a hit.
”We played baseball, fished, and had a spread on the sh.o.r.e. Then Ptolemy and I rowed out to where the sailboat was. I explained the mysteries of the jib and he caught on instantly. We took in the other Polydores and sailed for a couple of hours. Then we all went in swimming.”
”Not Diogenes!”
”Certainly. I tucked him under my arm and he seemed perfectly at home, although greatly disappointed because we didn't succeed in catching a snake.
”I finally landed them all safely under the roof of the Haunted House, and Ptolemy a.s.sured me it was the best day of his young life. In appreciation of the diversions I had afforded him, he made a confession which proved such good news to me that I was a lenient listener and exacted no penalty.”
”What was it?” I asked.
”He told me that on the day of Miss Wade's and my arrival at your house, he had made a misstatement to each of us and had not repeated to us accurately what he had overheard you telling Silvia when he was on the porch roof. Miss Wade, what did he tell you about me?”
”He said that Lucien said that your only failing was that you were daffy over women and made love to every one you saw.”
”Oh, Beth!” I cried, light bursting in, ”and you believed that little wretch?”
”I did.”
”Then that is why you have been so--”
”Yes--so--” repeated Rob grimly.
”Well, I never did have any use for a man-flirt, and I was awfully disappointed, for I had thought from what Rob said that you were a man's man.”
”And then, of course, when for the first time in my life I began being interested in a woman--in you--I played right into that little scamp's hands.”
”He is a man's man, Beth,” I said warmly. ”What Ptolemy heard me say was that Rob was a woman-hater.”
”I am not!” declared Rob indignantly--”just a woman-shyer, but I haven't finished with Ptolemy's confession. I wonder, now, if either of you can guess what he told me was Miss Wade's characteristic.”
”I don't dare guess,” laughed Beth.
”What I did say about Beth was that she was a born flirt.”
”I am not!” protested my sister, in resentment.